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Thursday, June 28, 2012

For the June Daring Bakers' challenge, Mandy of What The Fruitcake?!
came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake
challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow
us to create this unique little cake with ease.

This cake has far grander beginnings than tea with teddy. It was actually created as a wedding cake for royalty. The first Battenberg cake was made to celebrate the marriage of Queen
Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Victoria, to husband Prince Louis of
Battenberg.

It’s traditionally flavored with almond and has the signature
Battenberg markings, that is, the yellow and pink squares (said to
represent the four princes of Battenberg). The strips of sponge are
glued together using jam (normally apricot) and the whole cake is
covered in marzipan. Sometimes the edges are crimped and the top is
patterned with a knife.

Although there are specialized Battenberg cake tins available, you
don’t need one. This cake can be baked in a square baking tin and a divide
made with foil to separate the two batters. This recipe really is all
about simplicity.

I found the cake to be very simple to make. The almond flavor was nice and the crumb was moist and perfect. Instead of marzipan, I attempted to make some chocolate plastique (plastic chocolate). I was not so successful with this. Despite kneading my chocolate for quite some time, I just could not get it to come together. It simply crumbled as soon as I tried to roll it out. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but this prevented me from wrapping my cake beautifully as others have done. Instead, I'm going to attempt a marshmallow fondant (for the first time). That also means that I haven't finished it yet, so pics for this post will come later...

Thanks Mandy, for hosting this month's challenge. You'll find the recipe below. Also be sure to check out the Daring Bakers' Blogroll to see what everyone else thought of these beautiful and impressive cakes!

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/160°C Fan Assisted/Gas Mark 4
2. Grease an 8”/20cm square baking tin with butter
3. Line the tin with parchment paper, creating a divide in the middle with the parchment (or foil)
4. OR Prepare Battenberg tin by brushing the tin with melted butter and flouring

Making the pan divider with parchment paper and foil.I folded over a sheet of foil several times to help reinforce the divide.
Fold the parchment in half and put the foil into the crease.
Butter the bottom of the cake pan, this will help "glue" the parchment to it.Make sure the divide is in the middle of the pan and stick the excess parchment onto the bottom.

5. Whisk together the dry ingredients then combine with the wet
ingredients in a large bowl and beat together just until the ingredients
are combined and the batter is smooth
6. Spoon half the mixture into the one side of the prepared baking tin
7. Add a few drops of red food liquid/gel/paste to the remaining batter,
stir until the colour is thoroughly distributed, add more colour if
needed
8. Spoon the pink batter into the other half of the prepared baking tin
9. Smooth the surface of the batter with a spatula, making sure batter is in each corner
10. Bake for 25-30mins until the cake is well risen, springs back when
lightly touched and a toothpick comes out clean (it should shrink away
from the sides of the pan)
11. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to cool thoroughly on a wire rack
12. Once completely cool, trim the edges of the cake with a long serrated knife
13. Cut each coloured sponge in half lengthways so that you are left with four long strips of sponge
14. Neaten the strips and trim as necessary so that your checkered pattern is as neat and even as possible
15. Gently heat the apricot jam and pass through a small sieve
16. Brush warmed jam onto the strips of cake to stick the cake together
in a checkered pattern (one yellow next to one pink. On top of that, one
pink next to one yellow)
17. Dust a large flat surface with icing sugar then roll the marzipan in
an oblong shape that is wide enough to cover the length of the cake and
long enough to completely wrap the cake
18. Brush the top of the cake with apricot jam
19. Place the cake on the marzipan, jam side down
- Tip: Either in the middle or to the one side of the marzipan
20. Brush the remaining three sides with jam
21. Press the marzipan around the cake, making sure the join is either
neatly in the one corner, or will be underneath the cake once turned
over
- Tip: If you put the sponge to the one side of the marzipan, I found it
easiest to "roll" the sponge over and over onto the marzipan instead of
lifting the marzipan up onto the sponge
22. Carefully flip the cake over so that the seam is under the cake and
score the top of the cake with a knife, you can also crimp the top
corners with your fingers to decorate
23. Neaten the ends of the cake and remove excess marzipan by trimming
off a small bit of cake on both ends to reveal the pattern

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/160°C Fan Assisted/Gas Mark 4
2. Grease an 8”/20cm square baking tin with butter
3. Line the tin with parchment paper, creating a divide in the middle with the parchment (or foil)
- Tip: See photos or watch video above for detailed instructions
4. OR Prepare Battenberg tin by brushing the tin with melted butter and flouring
5. Whisk together dry ingredients (except walnuts and coffee) and
combine with the wet ingredients in a large bowl (except vanilla and
milk) and beat together just until the ingredients are combined and the
batter is smooth
6. Spoon half the mixture into a separate bowl and stir in the vanilla, 1½ teaspoons milk and chopped walnuts
7. Spoon the walnut mixture into the one side of the prepared baking tin
8. Dissolve the coffee in the remaining 1½ teaspoon milk and add to the remaining batter, stir until just combined
9. Spoon the coffee batter into the other half of the prepared baking tin
10. Smooth the surface of the batter with a spatula, making sure batter is in each corner
11. Bake for 25-30mins until the cake is well risen, springs back when lightly touched and a
toothpick comes out clean (it should shrink away from the sides of the pan)
12. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to cool thoroughly on a wire rack
13. Once completely cool, trim the edges of the cake with a long serrated knife
14. Cut each sponge in half lengthways so that you are left with four long strips of sponge
15. Neaten the strips and trim as necessary so that your checkered pattern is as neat and even as possible
16. Combine the buttercream ingredients together and mix until combined
17. Spread a thin layer of buttercream onto the strips of cake to stick
the cake together in a checkered pattern (one yellow next to one pink.
On top of that, one pink next to one yellow)
- Tip: See photos for detailed instructions
18. Dust a large flat surface with icing sugar then roll the marzipan in
an oblong shape that is wide enough to cover the length of the cake and
long enough to completely wrap the cake
19. Spread the top of the cake with a thin layer of buttercream
20. Place the cake on the marzipan, buttercream side down
21. Spread buttercream onto the remaining three sides
22. Press the marzipan around the cake, making sure the join is either
neatly in the one corner, or will be underneath the cake once turned
over
23. Carefully flip the cake over so that the seam is under the cake and
score the top of the cake with a knife, you can also crimp the top
corners with your fingers to decorate
24. Neaten the ends of the cake and remove excess marzipan by trimming
off a small bit of cake on both ends to reveal the pattern

Directions:
1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, stir occasionally
2. Once completely melted, remove from heat and allow to cool a bit
3. Stir in corn syrup / glucose syrup / golden syrup, it will seize up
almost immediately, just keep stirring until mixed and it comes away
from the side of the bowl
4. Transfer chocolate into a sealable bag, spread the chocolate out then seal the bag
5. Leave overnight or refrigerate for about 2 hours until completely firm
6. Turn out from the bag and knead on a surface dusted with powdered
sugar, at first it will just break , but as you knead, it will warm up
and start to become pliable
7. Knead until it's pliable enough to roll out or mould, 5 - 10minsStorage Instructions/Tips:
- Battenberg will keep for 3-4 days stored at room temperature in an airtight container
- Keep chocolate plastique in an airtight container at room temperature, it will keep for as long as the
expiry date on the chocolate wrapper

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia recipe was hosted by Sophia of Sophia's Sweets and Allison of Sleep Love Think Dine: French Strawberry Cake. It's a genoise, or Italian sponge cake, made without any chemical leavening agents. Instead, the sponge is made by whipping air into the batter and the dry ingredients are folded in. The batter is extremely delicate, and over mixing will cause it to deflate. The cake is then split into three layers, and then strawberries and cream are layered into between each cake layer.

I had a few small issues with this cake. First, I was traveling and did not have an 8-inch cake pan. I had to use a larger pan, and the resulting cake was too thin to cut into three layers. So, I ended up baking a second cake and splitting both cakes into two layers instead - resulting a 4-layer cake instead of a 3-layer cake. Even though I whipped up a full 2 cups of heavy cream (instead of the indicated 1-1/4), I did not have enough cream to pipe around the cake. Instead, I decided to just decorate my cake with more fresh strawberries.

Thanks to Sophia and Allison for hosting; you can find the recipe on their blogs here and here. Make sure you check here, too, to see what everyone else thought of wonderful summer treat.

* Recipe notes:

- Be very very careful folding your ingredients together, especially the butter. If you're not careful all is lost and you shouldn't even bother baking up the deflated batter.- I'd recommend using at least 2 cups of heavy whipping cream to frost the cake.